Helladic Civilization - Helladic Period, Ancient History World Map / World Ancient History / Helladic Civilization Helladic Civilization The Bronze Age civilizations of Greece flourished from about 3000 BC to about 1100 BC. While the Cycladic Civilization took root in the Cyclades Islands, the Minoan Civilization in Crete and Thera on mainland Greece was home to the rich Helladic Civilization. The civilization was named after ancient Greece, Hellas. The Helladic Period, therefore, refers to the era when the civilization flourished in Greece. Helladic and Mycenaean Civilizations In the later years (1900 BC to 1100 BC), the Helladic Civilization came to be known as the Mycenaean Civilization. This was entirely due to the rise of Mycenae, one of the many city-states that dotted Greece. Mycenaean King Agamemnon, the valiant hero of Troy, ensured that his kingdom was the most powerful in all of Greece. The Helladic Period is further categorized into Early, Middle, and Late Helladic Periods. Each is differentiated by the distinct styles of pottery, evolving art, architecture, and culture.

Early Helladic Period The Early Helladic Period started in about 3000 BC. A number of Indo-European nomadic tribes chose to settle down in central and southern Greece and took up agriculture and animal husbandry as their main occupations. Not much is known about the language and customs of these settlers. The native Greeks might have invaded them. At any rate, by 2000 BC there was much intermingling and the Greeks grew dominant. Middle Helladic Period The Middle Helladic Civilization lasted from 2000 BC to about 1550 BC. A number of city-states started to crystallize. The mighty warriors ruled and maritime trade decided the wealth of these city-states. The influence of the Minoan civilization led to development of social order in Greece. Later Helladic Period The Later Helladic Civilization, from 1550 BC, was dominated by the politics of Mycenae. The rich culture and traditions of this era formed the basis of Classical Greek legends. The dwindling maritime trade was the most likely reason for the decline of the Helladic Civilization. There seems to have been a lot of internal strife as well.

Toward 1100 BC, the ancient Greek civilizations disappeared, marking the commencement of the Dark Ages. The Iliad and the Greek Bronze Age, U. of S. Troy Some definitions: For our purposes, the bronze age in Greece can be identified, roughly, with the second millennium B.C. (i.e., ca. 2000-ca. 1000). In speaking of bronze-age cultures three terms are used: *Minoan — refers to the culture of bronze-age Crete *Cycladic — refers to the bronze-age cultures of the islands of the Aegean *Helladic — refers to the culture of mainland Greece in the bronze age Maps of Homer's world can be found among the CLAS 104: Classical Myths pages. [password required] Introduction. The Homeric poems date to the late 8th century B.C., but (like Arthurian legend) they purport to tell of a much earlier age.

The Greece of Homer's time was on the rebound: as we shall see in a later unit, his day witnessed the rise of the city state or polis, the flourishing of trade, intense colonization in southern Italy, Sicily, and the Black Sea region, the introduction of coinage, of more sophisticated battle tactics, and of writing — in short, the emergence of what would become Classical Greece. But these developments represented a rise out of an extremely bleak period in Greek history. In the 11th to 9th centuries (the so-called Dark Ages) mainland Greece had consisted primarily of meager, relatively isolated agrarian settlements, dominated by local landed aristocracies, with a relatively low level of material culture: no urban centers, relatively little trade or manufacturing, a population sustained principally by what crops it could manage to foster in the arid, rocky soil and under frequent pressure from migrating peoples displaced by the generally unsettled nature of the times.

It is all the more striking, then, that Homer tells of a time of powerful Greek kings who rule large kingdoms, engage in vast military expeditions overseas, and live in grand palaces filled with precious objects while routinely dining on meals such as Homer's audience saw only on special feast days, if at all. Prior to the late 19th century it was felt that Homer's grand vision of powerful kings and grand expeditions was merely a poetic fiction (again, compare the legends about King Arthur), but then in 1870 a megalomaniacal German banker named *Heinrich Schliemann journeyed to northwest Turkey and unearthed a grand bronze-age city (a series of cities, actually) at the very place tradition identified as the site of Troy. He then journeyed to Greece and, in digs at Mycenae and Tiryns, discovered evidence of a rich and powerful bronze-age civilization very like that described in the poems of Homer. [For recent assessments of Schliemann and his work, see D.F. Easton, "Heinrich Schliemann, Hero or Fraud?" Classical World 91.5 (1998) 335-43, S.H.

Allen, "A Personal Sacrifice in the Interest of Science: Calvert, Schliemann, and the Troy Treasures," Classical World 91.5 (1998) 345-54, and the debate between E.F. Bloedow and S.H. Allen in Echos du monde classique / Classical Views n.s. 17, no. 3 (1998) 579-644.] At the turn of the century another amateur archaeologist, *Arthur Evans, journeyed to Crete and uncovered evidence of a hitherto unknown bronze-age civilization there. These two men radically changed the then accepted view of early Greece, revealing that the eastern Mediterranean in the bronze age was vastly more sophisticated and complex than formerly suspected. Schliemann and Evans also gave a valuable impetus to the development of the modern science of archeology. Since their day, many other sites have been discovered and a relatively precise chronology has been worked out, based on stratigraphic evidence, pottery styles, and various synchronisms. Michael Wood presents something of this archaeological background in the first two episodes of his series, In Search of the Trojan War; useful accounts can be found in W.A.

McDonald's Progress into the Past and the other works listed in the course bibliography. In what follows you will find a general sketch of the Greek Bronze Age, to be developed further in the class slide lectures. To top of this page Helladic Civilization: The Mycenaean Age. The arrival in Europe of the "Greeks" (that is, the people who brought with them the rudiments of the language and culture that we associate with historical Greece) is identified by the gradual appearance (ca. 1900-1800) [ FN 4 ] of a new culture on the mainland, characterized by a distinctive gray pottery made on a fast wheel (known as Minyan ware), by the arrival of the horse and chariot, and by a more martial cast to the archaeological remains (cf. above on the relatively peaceful cast of Minoan Society ). The new arrivals were invaders from the east and, perhaps, the north. They were descendants of a people known as the *Indo-Europeans, originally perhaps located in the steppes of southern Russia, who, by the third millennium B.C., had began a gradual series of migrations to the west and south, taking with them their distinctive language, religion, and culture.

[Our knowledge of the Indo-Europeans derives mainly from comparative linguistics and anthropology. Linguists have demonstrated that the principal languages of modern Europe and western Asia (Greek and Latin — along with those languages derived from Latin, the so-called Romance languages: Italian, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Rumanian — as well as the Germanic, Baltic, Celtic, Slavic, Armenian, Hittite, Tocharian, Iranian, and Indic languages) are all regional offshoots of an original Indo-European tongue. As well as a linguistic heritage, the Indo-Europeans bequeathed to their descendants, e.g., a strongly patriarchal tradition and a pantheon headed by a powerful male weather god: note the similarity between the Greek Zeus (whose name is etymologically associated with the shining sky), the Latin Jupiter (etymologically: "father Zeus"), and the Sanskrit Dyaus Pitar.] The new arrivals present little of interest for us until ca. 1550, when Helladic culture itself undergoes a dramatic alteration. Our earliest evidence consists of two grave circles (dated to ca. 1550 and ca. 1500, respectively) at Mycenae.

The later of these was unearthed by Schliemann; the earlier was not discovered until the 1950s. Within these circles were a series of shaft graves laden with precious objects, many of which were imported from (or showed direct influence from) Egypt, Mesopotamia, and (especially) Crete. At about the same time, elaborate stone tombs (known as tholos tombs) began to appear and, within the next century or so, elaborate palaces that matched those of Crete in size and magnificence, if not in sophistication. Originally it was thought that these developments were the result of colonists or refugees from Egypt or Crete who subdued the local Greek population and established a modified form of the society prevalent in Crete, Egypt, and the Near East. (Review the Theseus legend (summarized above): what was Androgeus doing in Athens, and how was Minos able to exact such tribute?) Today it is generally believed that trade contacts between mainland Greece and its neighbors to the south and east led to a sudden flourishing of riches and the local adaptation of the traditions of the Greeks' more advanced Mediterranean neighbors. This flourishing of Helladic culture in ca.

1600-1100 B.C. is known as *The Mycenaean Age, after Mycenae, the home of Agamemnon. The principal sites of importance, in addition to Mycenae, are Tiryns, Pylos, Thebes, Athens, and Gla, each of which had impressive citadels. The Mycenaean palaces are much less expansive and complex, and much more regular in design, than their Minoan counterparts. They are built around a main structure known as the *megaron, or royal hall, consisting of a large rectangular chamber fronted by a colonnaded antechamber (see The World of Athens, ill. HI 1). At the center of the megaron was a large hearth surrounded by four columns (which would have supported a clerestory — for light and ventilation — and in some cases a balcony). On the right wall, as one entered, was an elaborate throne (attested by marks preserved in the flooring). It would seem that this chamber was where the king performed his most important political and, perhaps, religious functions.

[Rendering of the bronze-age palace at Mycenae ] The most striking feature of the palaces, however, is presented by their fortifications. In contrast to the Minoan palaces (discussed above), those of mainland Greece (with the exception of Pylos) are heavily fortified, with massive walls constructed of immense, irregularly shaped stones. [Later ages felt that these stones were too large to have been put in place by human agency: the story arose that the walls had been built by the Cyclopes (gigantic craftsmen in the service of Zeus — the better-behaved kinsmen of the famous one-eyed monster who tried to eat Odysseus). Thus the term *cyclopean masonry is used even today to indicate this style of bronze-age construction.] Clearly the Mycenaean Greeks, like Homer's heroes, were familiar with the hazards of war. [See, further, W. Taylour, The Mycenaeans, J.T.

Hooker, Mycenaean Greece, and the other works in the course bibliography.] Like the Minoans, the Mycenaean Greeks kept elaborate records on clay tablets, written in a script related to Minoan Linear A but distinct from it (hence it is known as *Linear B: see The World of Athens, ill. HI 2). An immense cache of these tablets was discovered at Pylos, but they also appear at Thebes, Athens, and (significantly) Cnossus. In the mid-1950s an architect and amateur linguist by the name of Michael Ventris demonstrated that the Linear B tablets were written in a form of Greek — a discovery that seemed to demonstrate conclusively that the kings of Pylos, Mycenae, etc. were not foreign overlords (like the Normans in 11th century England) but Greeks. [See esp. J. Chadwick, The Decipherment of Linear B, and E. Doblhofer, Voices in Stone.] The Linear B tablets provide invaluable evidence regarding the palace economy and their day-to-day administration, particularly at Pylos.

Like the palace at Cnossus, that at Pylos was as much storage depot and administrative center as royal seat, with massive amounts of goods being brought in, catalogued, and stored or redistributed. The tablets also tell us something of military and political affairs at Pylos, and of religious matters. What they do not contain is literature of any sort: they are purely administrative. [See in particular the excellent book by J. Chadwick, The Mycenaean World.] The Mycenaean Greeks enjoyed increasing prosperity in the 15th and 14th centuries, reaching something of a golden age in the early 13th century. But in the middle of the 13th century problems began to arise: Thebes was sacked; Mycenae was attacked (the houses outside the walls of the citadel were destroyed and later rebuilt); Mycenae, Tiryns, and Athens all extended their fortifications to secure a water supply and (at Tiryns) to provide for an influx of refugees from the surrounding countryside. It seems clear that something of a siege mentality was beginning to develop. Around 1200 the Mycenaean world begins to undergo a general collapse.

This was a disastrous period throughout the eastern Mediterranean: the Hittite empire (in modern Turkey) collapsed; various centers in the Near East fell; Egypt survived, but records there speak of attacks by "the sea peoples" and this time marks the beginning of a period of decline in Egyptian affairs. Various theories have been proposed to account for this wide-spread catastrophe: climactic change (which might have caused a general collapse of the ancient economies — fragile under the best of conditions — and a breakdown of social order) and foreign invaders remain the two favorite. (The Greeks themselves spoke of an invasion of Dorian Greeks, said to be the descendants of the pan-hellenic hero Heracles.) By ca. 1100-1050 the great centers on the Greek mainland had all fallen. This collapse ushers in the Dark Ages of the 11th to 9th centuries, mentioned at the beginning of this account. To top of this page Troy. It is now time to return to Homer. It turns out that there was an age of great kings and grand palaces. But was there a Trojan War? (This question is considered at length by Michael Wood.) Excavations at Troy itself have uncovered nine major settlements.

The most important are: Troy II: the city Schliemann thought was Homer's Troy, but dating to the latter half of the 3rd millennium Troy VI: ca. 1900 [ FN 5 ]-1300; a grand city — rich, powerful, with extensive trading contacts throughout the eastern Mediterranean (particularly, it turns out, with the Mycenaeans) — but one that seems to fall to an earthquake rather than through human agency Troy VIIa: a makeshift affair founded on the rubble of Troy VI but apparently destroyed by human agency ca. 1275-1200 Interpretation of the archaeological evidence is difficult. We have a Troy that is destroyed by fire (Troy VIIa) at almost the very time ancient tradition claimed Troy fell (1184 B.C. was the traditional date), but it is not the grand Troy described by Homer and it falls at a time when the Mycenaean centers themselves appear to have felt threatened and were making defensive, rather than offensive, preparations.

(It seems more likely that Troy VIIa fell to the same forces that destroyed the Mycenaean and Hittite civilizations.) On the other hand, we have a grand city (Troy VI) that matches Homer's Troy quite nicely and that falls when the Mycenaeans are at the peak of their power, but that seems to have fallen by earthquake (although this interpretation of the evidence has been questioned: for one thing, if earthquake were the only cause of Troy VI's fall, why was it rebuilt on such a reduced scale and in so haphazard a fashion?). These are not questions that we can solve in this class, but it is perhaps fair to give Homer the benefit of the doubt. After all, if there was no historic basis for Homer's tale, what would be the motivation for inventing it? On the other hand, we can prove that the Mycenaeans had extensive trade contacts in Asia Minor, the Near East, and Egypt: it does not seem improbable that hostilities of some sort might have broken out between the Mycenaeans, eager to trade in Asia Minor and the Black Sea region, and the Trojans, who commanded such a strategic position overlooking the Dardanelles.

[For a more detailed (largely negative) assessment of the historicity of the Iliad, see K.A. Raaflaub, "Homer, the Trojan War, and History," Classical World 91.5 (1998) 386-403.] Notes [FN 1] Further evidence, of a general sort, is provided by the Linear A tablets. Confirmation for this view of the Minoan political and economic structure is found in the very similar structures attested on the Greek mainland, as we will see. [ Return to text ] [FN 2] One example: some few years ago archeologists claimed to find evidence of human sacrifice in one of the smaller palaces adjoining the grand palace at Cnossus. If proven, such practices would entail a radical shift in our notions of the "peaceful" Minoans. See, in particular, C. Eller, The myth of matriarchal prehistory: why an invented past won't give women a future (Boston, 2000). [ Return to text ] [FN 3] The English "labyrinth" comes from the Greek labyrinthos.

The ending of this word (-inthos) associates it with a family of words that predate the Greek language: that is, it survives from the (unknown) language spoken by indigenous people of the region prior to the arrival of the "Greeks" (compare below). It closely resembles another Greek "loan word," labrys (a type of double ax). We will see the significance of this in the slide lectures. [ Return to text ] [FN 4] Note the synchronism with developments on Crete. [ Return to text ] [FN 5] Again, note the synchronism with Minoan Crete and the arrival of Indo-European peoples in Greece. [ Return to text ] Aegean Civilization timeline | World History Project Aegean Civilization timeline The Minoan civilization was a Bronze Age civilization which arose on the island of Crete. The Minoan culture flourished from approximately 2700 to... Read more 3000 to 2500 BC The significant Late Neolithic and Early Bronze Age Cycladic culture is best known for its schematic flat female idols carved out of the islands'...

Read more 2800 to 2500 BC The Early Helladic is marked by the emergence in Greece of an agricultural population that probably did not speak an Indo-European language. Very... Read more 2500 to 2000 BC The significant Late Neolithic and Early Bronze Age Cycladic culture is best known for its schematic flat female idols carved out of the islands'... Read more 2500 to 2300 BC This culture is defined stratigraphically at Eutresis and Tsoungiza above Early Helladic I levels of the Eutresis culture and at Eutresis, Lerna,... Read more 2300 to 2100 BC At Lerna and Tiryns in the Argolid, this cultural assemblage is found stratified directly above settlements of the Korakou (EH IIA) culture which... Read more 2160 to 1600 BC In the Early Minoan period ceramics were characterised by linear patterns of spirals, triangles, curved lines, crosses, fishbone motifs, and such....

Read more 2100 to 1550 BC The typical MH site is located on the top of a rocky hill or eminence. In contrast to the dispersed settlement pattern of the Korakou culture in... Read more 1650 to 1450 BC The eruption of Santorini in Greece in 1,650 B.C. was one of the largest (VEI=6) in the last 10,000 years. About 7 cubic miles (30 cubic km) of... Read more 1600 to 1100 BC Mycenaean Greece (c. 1600 BC – c. 1100 BC) is a cultural period of Ancient Greece taking its name from the archaeological site of Mycenae in... Read more 1600 to 1170 BC Karfi, Crete, (also Karphi, Greek: Καρφί) is a little-visited archaeological site high in the Dikti Mountains that is akin to Machu Picchu for the...

Read more 1550 to 1500 BC The LHI pottery is known from the fill of the shaft graves of Lerna and the settlements of Voroulia and Nichoria (Messenia), Ayios Stephanos,... Read more 1500 to 1400 BC The description of the LHIIA is mainly based on the material from Kourakou East Alley. Domestic and Palatial shapes are distinguished. There are... Read more 1400 to 1060 BC Mycenae Mycenae The Lion Gate, Ancient Mycenae, Greece Mycenae (Μυκήνες) is one of the most important archaeological sites of Greece. The fortified citadel is nested over the fertile plain of Argolis near the seashore in the northeast Peloponnese. Mycenae is the largest and most important center of the civilization that was named "Mycenaean" after this very citadel. Mycenaean is the culture that dominated mainland Greece, the Aegean islands, and the shores of Asia Minor during the late Bronze Age era (circa 1600-1100 BCE).

The Mycenaean Era occupies the tail end of the Helladic Civilization, which flourished in mainland Greece since 3000 BCE. The Mycenaean Civilization The Mycenaeans used a syllabic script that is the earliest form of Greek, attesting to the continuity of the Greek civilization from the early Bronze Age era. Many archaeological sites, cemeteries, and Tholos Tombs of the era have been unearthed throughout Greece, and the discovered artifacts speak of a people with strong cultural presence, a centralized political system with a King at the top, with strong commercial ties to the rest of the Bronze Age Mediterranean centers, and a militaristic attitude. Their extensive contact with the mainland Helladic and Mediterranean cultures (Minoan, Cycladic, and Levantine) enriched their existence and allowed for the development of a unique cultural identity that's evident in their legends, art, and architecture. Archaeological and tablet evidence indicates that the Mycenaeans dominated the area around the Aegean sea and assimilated the diverse amalgam of local people into a homogeneous culture from the Levant to Sicily and northern Africa.

Their influence and power is most evident in the magestic citadels and palaces, in the grand royal burials, and in the extraordinary grave goods that included luxurious jewelry, weapons, and vessels of all kinds. The vast majority of the funerary artifacts unearthed (beginning with Heinrich Schliemann's excavations on the site) are made of precious metals, such as gold, silver, and bronze, as well as precious stones and crystals like lapis lazuli which originated in central Asia. They traded mainly oil and ceramic vessels and imported "Anatolian or Caucasian tin and Syrian ivory" (Vermeule, 255). They also manufactured and traded weapons and tools with the raw materials they imported, and there are indications that they were involved in mercenary wars and even piracy. Mycenaean artistic output is generally characterized by an austerity of decoration, symmetrical composition, repetition, and disciplined formal arrangement, with limited subject matter that depicts mostly nature, hunting, and war scenes. The sculpture can be safely considered "crude" in execution, consisting mostly of low relief stone carvings, but the craftsmanship of their decorative arts is exceptional.

In terms of written records, Mycenaeans have left us with countless Linear B which almost exclusively contain catalogues and official records of a very stout bureaucracy which itself denotes a complex political and economic organization that was uniform throughout their area of influence. The end of the Mycenaean civilization came in 1200 BCE and lingered until the middle of the 11th c. BCE. The causes of this end have been debated for the last two centuries, and while several theories have emerged as dominant, no definitive answer has emerged to date. Among the most credible theories is the emigration of Dorians and Heraclids (Tribes that lived hitherto in central Greece) which destroyed all the Mycenaean centers - except Athens -, and the hypothesis that social upheaval from within forced the civilization into decline. The Sea People that decimated the shores of the eastern Mediterranean at that time are also credited with direct or indirect involvement in the demise of Mycenaean civilization, with some scolars indicating that the Sea People might have been Mycenaeans forced to flee their invaded homeland. Naturally, a combination of the above theories has also been suggested as the cause for the disappearance of the Mycenaeans.

No matter what the cause, the effects of this rapid decline were devastating and resulted in what we consider to be the Greek Dark Ages when population declined dramatically, major cities ceased to exist, and literacy disappeared for the next three hundred years. Legends Many of the legends of Ancient Greece have their origin, and refer to the this late Bronze Age Era we call "Mycenaean". The founding of Mycenae is lost in prehistory, but according to Greek legends, it was founded by the legendary hero Perseus - son of Zeus and Danae, daughter of the king of Argos, Acricios - who left Argos for Tyrins and later employed Cyclopes to build the walls of Mycenae with giant stones that no human could move (thus the characterization of the walls as "Cyclopean"). The Perseid dynasty ruled the area from Mycenae from at least three generations. Eurystheus, the last of the line, was the one who commissioned Herakles (Hercules) to perform his twelve labors, and when he was killed fighting the Athenians, Atreus, the son of Pelops became the king of Mycenae and started the Atreid dynasty.

Atreus' son, Agamemnon led the expedition against Troy - the story immortalized in the Homeric Illiad - but was murdered by his wife Clytemnestra upon his return to Mycenae. There are several explanations about how the place took it's name. Homer indicates that it is named after a beautiful nymph called Mycene, while other theories credit the mushroom-shaped pommel of Perseus' sword, or the local mushroom (mykes) he used as a cup to drink water on the site where the Perseia spring spontaneously appeared. Photo Gallery The Lion Gate The Lion Gate guards and provides the main access to the citadel. The two lions arranged symmetrically around a column is the first example of representational monumental sculpture in the European continent. While its significance has been lost to the depths of history, its placement above the main gate of the most powerful citadel of late Bronze Age has led to speculation that it symbolized something important like a family crest of a coat of arms. The triangular shape of the sculpture acts as a relieving triangle for the door below: its shape distributes the weight above the door to the sides and away from the horizontal lintel, protecting it form breakage.

The relief sculpture is carved of gray limestone, but the heads of the lions were added on (probably made of steatite or metal) and have been lost since antiquity. The gate was closed by a double, heavy wooden door which were secured by a sliding bar. It is dated to about 1249 BCE, and it was added during the second building phase of the citadel. Cyclopean Walls Part of the Cyclopean walls on the northeast side of the Lion Gate. Grave Circle A One of the most striking and significant features of the archaeological site is the excavated Grave Circle A seen in these photos. This was the location of the royal burials that have yielded a host of priceless Mycenaean funerary artifacts , now displayed mainly at the National Archaeological Museum of Athens and at the Mycenae Museum. The graves within are dated to the end of Middle Helladic and early Late Helladic Eras, and they were originally part of the expanded cemetery that lay outside the citadel, and were enclosed in the expanded wall sometime in the 13th c. BCE. In this photo: Grave Circle A is visible on the right.

Immediately to its left the square foundations belong to the complex where the Warrior Crater was found. The house group of the "oil merchants" is visible in the background of the image, outside the citadel walls. Grave Circle A has a diameter of 27m and it is located immediately to the right inside the Lion Gate. The circular burial area is enclosed by a double ring of upright dressed stone slabs which were probably filled with rubble and capped with more rectangular slabs to give a solid wall appearance. An opening in the slabs provided access to the burial site. Ten rectangular funerary stele marked the six shaft graves in which 19 skeletons were found interred in a contracted position. Ruins of the Cult Centre of Mycenae. It consists of five building complexes one the southwest slop of the citadel. They date to the early 13th c. BCE. Among the artifacts found in the ruins are the wall paintings and the clay figurines exhibited at the Mycenae Museum. The Cult Centre was destroyed in late 13th c. BCE and the site was occupied by houses which were used until the end of the Mycenaean period.

The Palace of Mycenae The palace occupies a central location atop the citadel. It was accessed from the south through two guard rooms. The state rooms were arranged around a central court which led to the Megaron with its four columns arranged in a square around the sacred hearth. In Mycenaean times the palace was lavishly decorated with vivid frescoes and mosaics. Photos from the excavations at the east end of the citadel, behind the royal palace: Artisan's quarter (top left); House of Columns (top center); Building Gamma (top right), and Building Delta (left). The Northeast Extension was constructed in the late 13th c. BCE. Its purpose was to safeguard the water supply and the underground cistern. It has two corbelled openings that lead outside the wall, one of which is visible in this picture. The underground cistern is an impressive engineering feat that allowed the citadel unlimited and secure water supply. The picture on the left shows the corbelled tunnel to the underground water pool that was supplied through underground pipes from a nearby natural spring. Visible to the right of the same photo is the second wall opening of the Northeast Extension.

The photo on the right depicts the complex engineering that was involved in the construction of the corbelled tunnel to the cistern. The Northern (Postern) Gate, the subject of the photo on the left, was constructed during the second building phase around 1250 BCE. It was secured with a double wooden door bolted by a sliding bar. The second wall opening of the Northeast Extension - the one next to the underground cistern entrance - as it appears from the outside. Grave Circle B Grave Circle B is located outside the walls of Mycenae and predate Grave Circle A by three centuries (beginning burials estimated at1650 BCE). The large circular wall contained 25 graves, and the funerary artifacts found in excavations were precious objects of gold, ivory, rock crystal. The two photos on the left show several of the excavated shaft graves in Grave Circle B, while the photo on the right is of Grave Rho which is a built tomb, created later in the 15th c. BCE. Tomb of Clytemnestra In the proximity of Grave Circle B, and overlapping part of it, is the Tholos Tomb of Clytemnestra.

While its name implies that Agamemnon's wife was buried in it, there is no such evidence. The area was buried during Hellenistic times and a theatre was constructed. Part of the stone seating of that theatre are visible in the (far left) photo above through the neat circular arc above and to the left of the Dromos. The tomb was looted by Veli Pasha during Ottoman rule, but otherwise is in excellent shape and shows exceptional masonry craftsmanship. Tomb of Aegisthus Plan and elevation of Aegisthus Tomb as it appears at Mycenae outside the monument itself. Such superb signs accompany most individual points of interest throughout the archaeological site of Mycenae. The Tomb of Aegisthus is among the earliest examples of Tholos Tomb construction. It was built in the early 15th c. BCE and its mostly built by small stones (compare with the well dressed stones of the Clytemnestra and Agamemnon Tombs). Just like the other eponymous tholos tombs in the area whose name is includes a historical or legendary person, there is no evidence that Aegisthus was buried in this tomb.

Lion Tomb The Lion Tholos Tomb is named thus due to its proximity to the Lion Gate. It is dated to the early 14th c. BCE. General view of Mycenae in its environment. Treasury of Atreus The Treasure of Atreus, built between 1350 and 1250 BCE, is one of the latest of its kind and it is the best preserved tholos tomb found. It's function as the tomb of Atreus, the father of Agamemnon, is by no means certain, but it is an architectural masterpiece indicative of the level of craftsmanship that Bronze Age masons had reached. Its entrance is framed by megalithic elements and the entire monument is constructed with exceptionally well dressed stones. The tomb was never buried by earth and remained always visible throughout the centuries, so it is no surprise that it was robbed in antiquity and we have no indication of the persons buried within, or of the accompanying artifacts that certainly were buried alongside them. The dromos (corridor leading up to the entrance) is 35m long by 6m wide and its carefully laid stones were waterproofed in the back with a layer of clay.

The monumental door opening is about 5.5m high with the characteristic relieving triangle crowing its lintel that consist of two massive stone slabs, of which the inner-most weighs approximately 120 metric tons. The tholos itself is 14.5 meters in diameter and 13m high. It is made of 33 concentric circles of dressed stones where one circle overlaps the one immediately below towards the inside, until the concentric circles end in a single stone at the very top (corbelling). Once all the stones were in place, masons carved away the overlapping parts of the stones leaving a smooth wall. The entire structure is awe inspiring. Note in this picture the distortion of a wide-angle lens that shows the top of the tomb to be leaning forward toward the entrance, where in reality it is located directly above head. to the left of the picture the entrance to the adjacent rock-cut chamber (off limits to visitors today) which was probably decorated with sculpted slabs on the walls. Once again, the superb drawings of the plan and elevation of the Treasury of Atreus provides visitors with valuable information on the site. Reconstruction, aerial photo, and a scale model of Mycenae.

Western sculpture | art | Britannica.com Western sculpture art Written By: figurehead Western sculpture, three-dimensional artistic forms produced in what is now Europe and later in non-European areas dominated by European culture (such as North America) from the Metal Ages to the present. Like painting, Western sculpture has tended to be humanistic and naturalistic, concentrating upon the human figure and human action studied from nature. Early in the history of the art there developed two general types: statuary , in which figures are shown in the round, and relief , in which figures project from a ground. Western sculpture in the ancient world of Greece and Rome and from the late Middle Ages to the end of the 19th century twice underwent a progressive development, from archaic stylization to realism; the term progressive here means that the stylistic sequence was determined by what was previously known about the representation of the human figure, each step depending upon a prior one, and not that there was an aesthetic progression or improvement. Modern criticism has sometimes claimed that much was lost in the change.

In any event, the sculptors of the West closely observed the human body in action, at first attempting to find its ideal aspect and proportions and later aiming for dramatic effects, the heroic and the tragic; still later they favoured less significant sentiments , or at least more familiar and mundane subjects. The pre-Hellenic, early Christian, Byzantine , and early medieval periods contradicted the humanist-naturalist bias of Greece and Rome and the Renaissance; in the 20th century that contradiction has been even more emphatic. The 20th century has seen the move away from humanistic naturalism to experimentation with new materials and techniques and new and complex imagery. With the advent of abstract art, the concept of the figure has come to encompass a wide range of nonliteral representation; the notion of statuary has been superseded by the more inclusive category of freestanding sculpture; and, further, two new types have appeared: kinetic sculpture , in which actual movement of parts or of the whole sculpture is considered an element of design; and environmental sculpture , in which the artist either alters a given environment as if it were a kind of medium or provides in the sculpture itself an environment for the viewer to enter.

European Metal Age cultures kore Aegean and Eastern Mediterranean Aegean civilization is a general term for the prehistoric Bronze Age cultures of the area around the Aegean Sea covering the period from c. 3000 bc to c. 1100 bc, when iron began to come into general use throughout the area. From the earliest times these cultures fall into three main groups: (1) the Minoan culture (after the legendary king Minos) of Crete, (2) the Cycladic culture of the Cyclades islands, and (3) the Helladic culture of mainland Greece (Hellas). For convenience, the three cultures are each divided into three phases, Early, Middle, and Late, in accordance with the phases of the Bronze Age. The culture of Cyprus in the eastern Mediterranean, although it commenced somewhat later than those of the Aegean, came to parallel them by the Middle Bronze Age. The Late Bronze Age phase of the mainland is usually called Mycenaean after Mycenae, the chief Late Bronze Age site in mainland Greece.

The first centre of high civilization in the Aegean area, with great cities and palaces, a highly developed art, extended trade, writing, and use of seal stones, was Crete. Here from the end of the 3rd millennium bc onward a very distinctive civilization, owing much to the older civilizations of Egypt and the Middle East but original in its character, came into being. The Cretan (Minoan) civilization had begun to spread by the end of the Early Bronze Age across the Aegean to the islands and to the mainland of Greece. During the Late Bronze Age, from the middle of the 16th century onward, a civilization more or less uniform superficially but showing local divergences is found throughout the Aegean area. Eventually people bearing this civilization spread colonies eastward to Cyprus and elsewhere on the southern and western coasts of Asia Minor as far as Syria, also westward to Tarentum in southern Italy and even perhaps to Sicily. In the latter part of this period, after about 1400 bc, the centre of political and economic power, if not of artistic achievement, appears to have shifted from Knossos in Crete to Mycenae on the Greek mainland.

The Early Bronze Age (3000–2000 bc) Early Minoan The early Minoan period saw a thousand years of peaceful development, which eventually gave place to the full flowering of the Minoan spirit, the Middle Minoan period. Pottery was preeminent among the Early Minoan arts. Early Cycladic Art & Architecture: Fact or Fiction? The Early Cycladic culture developed on parallel lines to the Early Minoan. Thanks to obsidian from Melos, marble from many islands, and local sources of gold, silver, and copper, the Cycladic islanders rapidly became prosperous. As in Crete, the Early Bronze Age merged without incident into the Middle Bronze Age. The Early Cycladic period is celebrated principally for its statuettes and vases carved from the brilliant coarse-crystalled marble of these islands. The statuettes, mostly of goddesses, are among the finest products of the Greek Bronze Age. They owe their charm to the extreme simplification of bodily forms. The typical “Cycladic idol” is a naked female, lying with her head back, her arms crossed over her breasts. These figures vary in size from a few inches to more than six feet in length.

Marble Cycladic idol from Amorgós, Greece, 2500 bce; in the National Archaeological … Emile Serafis Side view of a marble Cycladic idol from Amorgós, Greece, c. 2500 bc; in the National … Emile Serafis Early Helladic and Early Cypriot Mainland Greece probably received its Bronze Age settlers from the Cyclades, but the two cultures soon diverged. A prosperous era arose about 2500 bc and lasted until about 2200. Sculpture was overshadowed by pottery, metalwork, and architecture among the Early Helladic arts. In the Early Cypriot, the only surviving sculptures are a series of steatite cruciform figures of a mother goddess (3000–2500 bc) stylized in much the same way as contemporary Cycladic idols, from which they may have been derived. The Middle Bronze Age (2000–1600 bc) Connect with Britannica Facebook Twitter YouTube Instagram Pinterest Middle Minoan The Middle Minoan period differs principally from the Early Minoan in the creation of palaces and a palatial life and art.

Large-scale sculpture seems not to have found much favour in Crete, although fragments of life-size figures from this period were discovered in the Cyclades in the late 20th century. Miniature sculpture of the highest quality, some of it of fired sand and clay, was produced from at least as early as 1600 bc. Good examples are two female figures (called “Snake Goddesses”) from Knossos, dated about 1700 bc (Archaeological Museum, Iráklion, Crete). These women stand with their arms in front of them, holding sacred snakes; they wear a flounced skirt and tight belt, and their breasts are bare. Snake goddess, faience statuette from the temple depository of Knossos, c. 1600 bc. In the … Nimatallah/Art Resource, New York Middle Cycladic, Middle Helladic, and Middle Cypriot During the Middle Cycladic period, the Cyclades suffered a diminution in prosperity and seem to have become politically subordinate to Crete. Two waves of Indo-European peoples seem to have descended on the Greek mainland, one about 2200 bc and the other about 2000 bc.

They destroyed much and for long contributed little to Greece’s artistic heritage. The pottery of this period, however, is of high quality. The Middle Cypriot period was a development of the Early Cypriot. As on the mainland, no important art apart from pottery has survived. The Late Bronze Age (1600–1100 bc) Late Minoan Prosperity and artistic achievement remained at a high level until about 1450 bc, when all the great centres of Cretan culture were destroyed by earthquakes (probably connected with a cataclysmic eruption of the volcanic island of Thera). After these disasters, only the palace at Knossos was restored for occupation. About 1375 bc, however, the palace at Knossos was destroyed by fire. Thereafter Crete was a second-class power and became somewhat of a cultural backwater. Miniature sculpture was still popular. No longer in faience, figures were increasingly made of bronze, ivory, and terra-cotta. Some of the bronzes, cast solid by the “lost wax” process (using a wax model), are very fine, the earliest being the best.

The subjects include male worshippers wearing boots, tight belt, and kilt; women (perhaps goddesses) dressed like the faience snake goddesses of the Middle Minoan period; and animals, especially bulls. Britannica Lists & Quizzes Editor Picks: Exploring 10 Types of Basketball Movies Carved-stone vases were made between 1600 and 1450 bc. Elegant vessels were carved from such diverse materials as marble, obsidian, and steatite. Others, of soft stone, were made in the shape of bulls’ heads, astonishingly true to life, or were carved in relief, with religious or court ritual scenes, and covered with gold leaf. Extant portion of the Late Minoan vessel known as the Harvester Vase, … Alison Frantz Serpentine rhyton (drinking vessel) in the form of a bull’s head, steatite with gold-plated horns … Alison Frantz The art of the seal engraver flourished until 1375 bc. Religious subjects, scenes of the bullring, and depictions of animals in their natural setting were popular.

Even the exaggerations of the style reflect careful observation of the movements of the animals and their idiosyncratic anatomy, but they also relate the forms depicted to the shape of the stone—the curve of a bull’s back or horns to that of the edge, for instance. Impression of a seal stone from Vapheio, Greece, c. 1500 bce. From Crete and Mycenae published by Thames & Hudson, London, and Harry N. Abrams, New York; photograph, Hirmer Fotoarchiv, Munich Mycenaean Mainland Greece enjoyed renewed contacts with Crete c. 1600 bc, and a rich culture, based on the Late Minoan, rapidly came into being. The Mycenaeans gained control of Crete c. 1450 bc, and between 1375 and 1200 bc they became masters of an empire that stretched from Sicily and southern Italy in the west to Asia Minor and the Levant coast in the east. About 1200 bc, however, many of the Mycenaean strongholds were destroyed by fire.

There were signs of a renaissance, but the end of Mycenaean civilization came c. 1100 bc. Trending Topics Eyjafjallajökull volcano The Mycenaeans seem to have had more of a taste for monumental sculpture than had their Minoan mentors. Of the few surviving examples, the best known is a relief over the Lion Gate at Mycenae (c. 1250 bc), in which two lions confront each other across an architectural column. Probably heraldic in concept, this design is comparable with those on tiny seals and ivories of Cretan inspiration. Sculpture on a small scale, in ivory, bronze, and terra-cotta, generally Minoan in character, remained popular. The Lion Gate at Mycenae, Greece, c. 1250 bc. From Crete and Mycenae published by Thames & Hudson, London, and Harry N. Abrams, New York; photograph, Hirmer Fotoarchiv, Munich Late Cypriot Cyprus reached its highest degree of prosperity in the Late Cypriot period, due to increased exploitation of its copper mines.

There were close commercial relations not only with the Levant coast, as before, but also with Egypt, Crete, and Mycenaean Greece (the latter being close from 1400 bc). About 1200 bc Mycenaean Greeks, refugees from their homeland, settled in Cyprus. They introduced their skills and produced many luxury articles in a mixed Mycenaean-Cypriot style. Cyprus escaped the invasions that finally destroyed Mycenaean and Minoan culture, but its own culture did not last much longer. By 1050 bc, for reasons that are not clear, it, too, had ceased to exist. As in Crete, large-scale sculpture was rejected in favour of small-scale work. A bronze figure of a horned god (shortly after 1200 bc) from Enkomi (Cyprus Museum, Nicosia) shows a successful blend of Mycenaean and Cypriot elements. A good example of these characteristics is a carved ivory gaming box (British Museum), also from Enkomi, whose style shows a blend of Mycenaean and Middle Eastern motifs.

Reynold Alleyne Higgins The Editors of Encyclopædia Britannica Western Mediterranean Like central and northern Europe, although to a lesser degree, the western Mediterranean was considerably behind the eastern Mediterranean, where civilization, the arts, and writing were born much earlier. The development of the metallurgical industry did not occur simultaneously in the various regions of the western Mediterranean, but it did bring important innovations in the mode of living and, of course, in the arts. The Chalcolithic (Copper-Stone) era began in Spain at the end of the 3rd millennium bc at Los Millares, near Almería, and in Italy at the beginning of the 2nd millennium with the Remedello civilization. Bronze appeared not long afterward, around 1800 bc, in Italy and Sardinia. The Bronze Age in Italy gave way to the Iron Age at the beginning of the 1st millennium bc, but elsewhere, as in Sardinia or Spain, it lasted longer. The Iron Age flourished on the Illyrian coasts and in Italy from 900 to 800 bc; it also lasted varying lengths of time according to locale.

After this, one may speak of the civilizations of Magna Graecia , of Rome, or of Etruria. During the metal ages, popular migrations, commerce, and wars increased, which resulted in the rise of cities and of fortified works for their protection and defense, such as the talayots (round or quadrangular towers) of the Balearic Isles and the nuraghi (round towers) of Sardinia. With respect to the plastic arts, one particularly remarkable phenomenon was the birth and multiplication of megalithic human representations, which gained in number and importance from the 3rd to the 1st millennium bc. The Neolithic monuments, menhirs (single, vertical megaliths) and dolmens (structures of two vertical stones capped by a horizontal one), which had arisen in the megalithic era, continued to appear in the Copper and Bronze Ages, but then—here and there in Spain, Sardinia, Corsica, Liguria, and in the south of France—stelae-menhirs (carved or inscribed stone slabs used for commemorative purposes), like the stammerings of Western figure sculpture, imitated the human form.

They maintained certain stylistic relations with rock engravings of mountainous regions, such as the Val Camonica. Menhir with representation of a male figure, stone, Neolithic Period; in the Musée Fenaille, … Giraudon/Art Resource, New York Bronze Age cultures Sardinia and Corsica The nuraghic civilization had an original sculpture expressed in a large production of bronze statuettes, about 500 of which have been found in nuraghi, temples, houses, and tombs. These figurines represent all classes of the proto-Sardinian populations—military chiefs, soldiers, priests, and women, as well as heroes and gods—in what seems to the modern viewer to be an engagingly direct but also sophisticated geometric style. The greatest number of these bronzes are today in the Museo Archeologico Nazionale in Cagliari, Sardinia. Some have been discovered in Etruscan tombs of Vetulonia and Vulci and have been dated to the period extending from the 9th to the 6th century bc. Corsican menhir, or stela, statuary constitutes a group of special interest.

The stone is imbued with life by a sculptural art that involves roughing-in of the head, animation of the upper portion of the body, and placement of a few elements of ornamentation or weaponry (sculpted in relief or, more rarely, engraved) on the schematically anthropomorphic image. These primitive statues are masculine and, no doubt, represent family or tribal heads made heroic or divine. This megalithic stela statuary art appears not only on Corsica but also in various other countries and regions of the western Mediterranean, including Spain, Sardinia, Liguria, and, in southern France, Provence, Aveyron, Hérault, and Gard, though to a lesser degree. The advance of this type of megalithic sculptural art is difficult to follow, but it is clear that these different groups are related, with close affinities existing between the stelae-menhirs of Corsica and those of the Ligurian coast. Such art is everywhere the expression of a patriarchal society seeking to impose on men’s vision, massively and not without grandeur, the image of the departed ancestors.

Italy From the Bronze Age of far northern Italy there survives an exceptional collection of rock engravings, a remarkable extension of an art that, in fact, had been represented in the prehistoric era and had not yet vanished completely. About 20,000 rock engravings have been found between altitudes of 5,000 and 5,600 feet (1,500 and 1,700 metres) in the Val Camonica, north of the town of Brescia. This art is found again further west, in the Maritime Alps of France on Monte Bego, between altitudes of 6,600 and 8,900 feet, and less remarkably elsewhere. What is exceptional about the carvings of the Val Camonica is that they represent a variety of subjects—rituals, battles, hunting, and daily labour—and that these were treated as compositions . Although engraving played a minor role in the case of the menhir statuary mentioned earlier, relations do exist between the sculpted works and the Camunian images of Monte Bego.

The same representations of collar torques appear on the menhir statuary of Gard, Aveyron, and Tarn, on the one hand, and on certain monumental engravings of the Val Camonica, on the other. Some kind of relationship thus unites the arts of rock engraving and stela statuary in the Bronze Age. Iron Age cultures Italy The Italian peninsula, which in the Bronze Age had been only one among many centres of civilization, took on a special importance in the Iron Age. Widespread and powerful cultural and artistic centres grew up there, first in the Villanovan civilization and later in the Etruscan; their influence was disseminated into the surrounding areas. At the beginning of the 1st millennium bc there began to develop in the Po plain, in Tuscany, Latium, and some areas of Lucania, a new cremating civilization, which draws its name from that of the Villanova necropolis, discovered near Bologna. It is obviously related to the so-called Urnfield civilization that, at the end of the Bronze Age and beginning of the Iron Age, extended over central and eastern Europe and had developed a metal art with geometric and abstract ornamentation.

The ashes of the dead were placed in urns thrust in level with the soil. From the Urnfield civilization arose two others: the Hallstatt civilization, which spread into the Balkans, northern and central Europe, and France, beyond the Pyrenees; and in Italy the Villanovan civilization and the civilizations that, to the east and west of the Po plain, were related to it, the so-called Golasecca civilization in the great lakes region and the Este civilization in the Venice area. These Italic civilizations of the Early Iron Age, which appeared at the beginning of the 1st millennium bc and lasted for varying lengths of time, multiplied the number of dwelling sites. Originating as outposts established on naturally strong positions, they began to resemble towns as population increased. The cinerary urn, which was made first of terra-cotta and later of bronze, assumes, by its form, a symbolic value. Biconical in form and covered with an overturned cup, later with a helmet, it schematically represents the appearance of the human body. Sometimes, as in examples from Latium and Tuscany, the funerary vessel is in the form of a hut or cabin—the house of the dead person whose remains it holds.

The ornamentation, painted or engraved on the vases and engraved or in relief on metal objects, is in a geometric, nonfigurative style. Human or animal forms appear only rarely—in the decoration of small utilitarian objects such as vase handles and horse bits. It is a severe art, therefore, which essentially limits itself to linear exercises. Even motifs such as the disk, the solar boat, and the birds that encircle them, inherited from a more distant past and possessing primitively religious value, take on a stylized air and become abstract figures. Villanovan cinerary urn in the form of a helmet. In the Villa of Pope Julius, Rome. Alinari/Art Resource, New York A naturalistic note is provided by the imagery that decorates, in zones of superimposed relief, bronze vessels called situlae, a kind of pail found in Eastern countries and in the eastern Alps. These situlae were made in Venetian workshops in particular and were very popular in the neighbouring areas.

They rapidly underwent an Etruscan influence, however, that tended to give prominence in the chased ornamentation to human figures at feasts, games, or funerals, as in the masterpiece known from the place of its discovery as the Certosa Situla (Museo Civico Archeologico, Bologna).

Question: Helladic relates to the Bronze Age cultures of which European country?
Answer: Greece